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The Patten report on policing - Implementation of the Belfast Agreement limps on as Unionistbacklash continues

01 November 1999

It was never supposed to be like this. By the time the Patten report was due for publication, the main elements of the Belfast Agreement should have been implemented, including the all-important political institutions - the North/South Ministerial Council, the (N/S) implementation bodies, the British/Irish Council and the government of devolved functions within Northern Ireland itself through a twelve-member Executive Committee answerable to an Assembly. While some provisions of the Agreement were in place by the summer of 1999 - the Human Rights Commission, the Equality Commission, prisoner releases, new victims' policies and commissions reviewing criminal justice and now the Patten Commission on policing (published 9th September 1999) - the governing institutions were not established until December 1999.

The Patten Report (A New Beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland. The Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland - available here was always predicted to be the most controversial element of the Agreement due to the one-sided nature of policing historically and the strong sense of ownership of the Royal Ulster Constabulary by unionists. The Report should have been published in an atmosphere of political consolidation but instead it arrived at a time of political crisis, a crisis so deep that the Agreement itself came close to collapse. The Belfast Agreement (made 10th April 1998) was endorsed in Ireland North and South by a referendum held on 22nd May 1998. The 71% majority in favour of the Agreement in the North (and over 90% in the South) comprised almost universal support by Irish nationalists but unionists were split about 52/48 for and against.

The Agreement envisaged rapid movement on the establishment of the political institutions. Elections for the Assembly were held in June 1998 and a First and Deputy First Minister elected (David Trimble, Ulster Unionist Party and Seamus Mallon, Social Democratic and Labour Party). The Agreement assumes that a transitional Executive would be formed, using the D'Hondt system (Ministers selected in proportion to party strength) immediately following the election, with government devolved in a matter of months. Regarding the sequencing of the North/South political arrangements, the Agreement states "during the transitional period between the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the transfer of power to it, representatives of the Northern Ireland transitional Administration and the Irish Government operating in the North/South Ministerial Council will undertake a work programme, in consultation with the British Government, covering at least 12 subject areas, with a view to identifying and agreeing by 31 October 1998 areas where co-operation and implementation for mutual benefit will take place." The N/S Ministerial Council was not established until December 1999, although Mallon and Trimble announced agreement on matters for N/S co-operation and implementation (as well as on the Northern Departments/Ministries) on 18 December 1998. Since then there have been several high profile attempts to establish the Executive but Trimble's party continued to insist that they would not enter an Executive with Sinn Fein (due two ministries) unless the IRA begins to hand over weapons and explosives. The IRA has stated on a number of occasions that it will not do this, and Sinn Fein maintains the position that it does not speak for the IRA. Furthermore Sinn Fein claims to be honouring the Agreement which commits parties to "reaffirm their commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations ... [and to] confirm their intention to continue to work constructively and in good faith with the Independent Commission, and to use any influence they may have, to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years following endorsement in referendums North and South of the agr